This invention relates in general to pallets on which goods are stored and shipped, and more particularly to pallets having supporting components formed from extruded blocks and other relatively inexpensive materials.
The traditional wood pallet for storing and supporting goods has several wood runners to which wood boards are nailed to produce a deck on which the goods are stacked or otherwise placed. The runners, of course, elevate this deck above a floor or some other supporting surface, and this enables the tines of a fork lift to be inserted beneath the deck. With the ever-increasing cost of lumber, wood pallets are relatively expensive and must be used over and over again to justify their cost. This results in the annoying administrative burden of keeping track of pallets, and of course pallets, particularly once they leave the premises of the owner, are more susceptible to loss, pilferage, and damage. Moreover, wood pallets are quite heavy in and of themselves, so a load of wood pallets is not easily transported or handled.
A few pallet manufacturers have substituted less expensive materials either in whole or in part for wood and have produced pallets which by reason of their cost may be used on a disposable or one-trip basis. For example, decks made of corrugated paperboard have been substituted for the traditional boards, while runners formed from paperboard in a honeycomb configuration have taken the place of traditional wood runners. Pallets so formed cost considerably less than the traditional wood pallets. Moreover, such pallets, while having substantial strength in compression, are considerably lighter than wood pallets and thus much easier to handle. A pallet having a corrugated paperboard deck and runners formed from paperboard honeycomb material is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,530.
Even though paperboard honeycomb pallets of the foregoing construction have many advantages over the traditional wood pallets, they do not possess the strength of wood pallets, particularly in shear. In this regard, a pallet which utilizes paperboard honeycomb for its runners, may collapse if shifted laterally over a floor while the honeycomb runners are in contact with the floor, as sometimes occurs when forklift operators try to manipulate the pallets laterally over a floor, this being known as side-shifting. Moreover, the honeycomb material, in order to supply sufficient strength to the pallet, must occupy a proportionately greater area beneath the deck than the wood runners of a conventional wood pallet, and this detracts from the space available for accommodating the tines of a forklift. This in turn requires the forklift operator to exercise greater caution in maneuvering the forklift tines beneath the deck. Furthermore, paperboard runners loose strength when they become wet, and some warehouse floors are damp.
Thus, while pallets with corrugated paperboard decks and paperboard honeycomb runners have many advantages over the traditional wood pallets, they have some disadvantages as well. What is needed is a light weight pallet constructed from inexpensive material, yet possessing substantial strength approaching that of traditional wood pallets.